the lamb And it shall be a lamb without spot a male of a year old according also unto which rite you shall take a kid And you shall keep him until the fourteenth day of this month and the whole multitude of the children of Israel shall sacrifice him at even And they shall take of the blood thereof and put upon both the posts and on the upper door-posts of the houses wherein they shall eat him And they shall eat the flesh that night roasted at the fire and unleavened bread with wild lettice You shall not eat thereof any thing raw nor boiled in water but onely roasted at the fire the head with the feet and entrails thereof you shall devour Neither shall there remain any of him till morning if there be any thing left you shall burn it with fire And thus you shall eat him You shall gird your reins and you shall have shooes on your feet holding staves in your hands and you shall eat speedily for it is the phase that is the passage of our Lord. The TRACT taken out of the 139th Psalm The Church having represented unto us by the precedent Lesson how God is pleased we should celebrate the memory of the benefit he afforded us by the Passion of his Son in freeing us thereby from the tyranny of the Devil and from the slavery of Sin figured unto us by the people of Israel's delivery from the Egyptian's captivity teacheth us in this Tract how we are to have recourse to God in Afflictions and Persecutions first considering him both just and merciful neither leaving any sin unpunished nor good works unrewarded that he can either divert sweeten give strength to bear or deliver those entirely from the miseries of this life who sink under their weight and that at last he can elevate them to the fruition of that bliss where no evil can interrupt and where the sovereign good is not to be lost DEliver me our Lord from the evil man from the unjust man rescue me V. Which have devised iniquity in their heart all the day they did appoint battels V. They have whet their tongues as that of a serpent the venome of asps is under their lips V. Keep me our Lord from the hand of the sinner and from unjust men deliver me V. Who have devised to supplant my steps the proud have hid a snare for me V. And they have stretched out ropes for a snare they have laid a stumbling-block for me near the way V. I say to our Lord thou art my God hear our Lord the voice of my petition V. Our Lord Lord the strength of my salvation thou hast overshadowed my head in the day of battel V. Yield me not our Lord from my desire to the sinner they have devised against me forsake me not lest they perhaps be proud V. The head of their compass the labour of their lips shall cover them V. Coals shall fall upon them thou shalt cast them down into the fire in miseries they shall not stand up V. A man full of tongue shall not be directed in the earth evils shall take the unjust man into destruction V. I have known that the Lord will do the judgements of the needy and the revenge of the poor V. But as for the just they shall confess unto thy Name and the righteous shall dwell with thy countenance The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to St. John Chap. 18. The Passion is read in the Pulpit being uncovered first to shew us that Christ was nailed all naked to the Cross secondly to signifie that Jesus Christ has shewed unto us nakedly and manifestly the accomplishment of the Prophesies and 't is for this reason also that this day the Crucifixes are all unvail'd AT that time Jesus went forth with his disciples beyond the torrent Cedron where was a garden into which he entred and his disciples And Judas also that betrayed him knew the place because Jesus had often resorted thither together with his disciples Judas therefore having received the band of men and of the chief priests and the pharisees ministers cometh thither with lanthorns and torches and weapons Jesus therefore knowing all things that should come upon him went forth and said to them Whom seek ye They answered him Jesus of Nazareth Jesus said to them I am he And Judas also that betrayed him stood with them As soon therefore as he said to them I am he they went backward and fell to the ground Again therefore he asked them Whom seek ye And they said Jesus of Nazareth Jesus answered I have told you that I am he if therefore you seek me let these go their ways that the word might be fulfilled which he said That of them whom thou hast given me I have not lost any Simon Peter therefore having a sword drew it out and smote the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear And the name of the servant was Malchus Jesus therefore said to Peter put up thy sword into thy scabbard The chalice which my father hath given me shall not I drink it The band therefore and the tribune and the ministers of the Jews apprehended Jesus and bound him and they brought him to Annas first for he was father-in-law to Caiaphas who was the high priest of that year And Caiaphas was he that had given counsel to the Jews that it is expedient that one man die for the people Simon Peter followed Jesus and another disciple And that disciple was known to the high priest and went in with Jesus into the court of the high priest But Peter stood at the door without The other disciple therefore that was known to the high priest went forth and spake to the porters and brought in Peter The wench therefore that was portress said to Peter Art not thou also of this mans disciples He said to her I am not And the servants and ministers stood at a fire of coals because it was cold and warmed themselves And with them was Peter also standing and warming himself The high priest therefore asked Jesus of his disciples and of his doctrine Jesus answered him I have openly spoken to the world I have always taught in the synagogue and in the temple whither all the Jews resort together and in secret I have spoken nothing Why askest thou me Ask them that have heard me when I have spoken unto them Behold they know what things I have said When he had said these words one of the ministers standing by gave Jesus a blow saying Answerest thou the high priest so Jesus answered him If I have spoken ill give testimony of the evil but if well why strikes thou me And Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest And Simon Peter was standing and warming himself they said therefore to him Art not thou also of his disciples He denied and said I am not One of the servants of the high priest cosin to him whose ear Peter did
the greatness of this Benefit and to preserve the memory of it God hath commanded that whereas before we reckoned the years from the Creation of the World from henceforth we should compute them from this deliverance to make us understand thereby that the delivery of Man from the Tyranny of the Devil and Slavery of Sin which the bringing of the Children of Israel out of the Egyptian Bondage was a figure of is not less considerable yea is more advantageous to us than our Creation IN those days our Lord said unto Moses and Aaron in the Land of Egypt this month shall be to you the beginning of months it shall be the first in the months of the year Speak ye to the whole assembly of the Children of Israel and say to them the tenth day of this month let every man take a Lamb by their Families and Houses But if the number be less than may suffice to eat the Lamb he shall take unto him his Neighbour that joyneth to his House according to the number of souls which may suffice to the eating of the Lamb. And it shall be a Lamb without spot a Male of a year old according also to which rite you shall take a Kid. And you shall keep him till the fourteenth day of this month and the whole multitude of the Children of Israel shall Sacrifice him at even And they shall take of the bloud thereof and put upon both the Posts of the Houses wherein they shall eat him And they shall eat the flesh that night rosted at the fire and unleavened bread with wild lettice You shall not eat thereof any thing raw nor boyled in water but only roasted at the fire the head with the feet and entrails thereof you shall devour and you shall not break one bone of him Neither shall there remain any thing of him until morning If there be any thing left you shall burn it with fire And thus you shall eat him You shall gird your reins and you shall have shooes on your feet holding staves in your hands and you shall eat speedily For it is the Phase that is the passage of our Lord. The Church begs of God the grace for us to reap the benefit of our Redemption and to concur with it in such sort that we may acknowledge it to crown all the other works of his Bounty either in creating or adding conveniences to our better Being or advantages for our conservation Let us Pray Let us bow our knees R. Lift up your selves ALmighty and Everlasting God who arâ— wonderful in the dispensation of all thy Works grant that those whom thou hast Redeemed may be sensible that the Creation of the World in the beginning of time was not a greater marvel than that which happened of later days in the immolation of Jesus Christ our true Pasch who being God liveth and reigneth for ever Amen The TENTH PROPHECY taken out of the 3d. Chapter of Jonas The Church by the example of the Ninivites instructs the Catechumens to fear God so soon as they have the happiness to know him and to reverence him as soon as they begin to contemplate him through Faith and that it avails them not to have known him if they continue the same affections they had before they knew him That the Catechumens and those who are baptized have the same Hopes the same Recompences the same fear of Judgment and the same necessity of Repentance For though it be certain that those who present themselves to be Baptized shall receive all the benefits of Gods Mercy that is an entire Absolution of all their sins they must nevertheless take care to dispose and make themselves worthy by a sincere Repentance Baptism is the accomplishment and seal of Faith and this Faith takes its beginning from that of Penance AND the word of the Lord was made to Jonas the Prophet the second time saying Arise and go to Ninive that I shall speak to thee And Jonas arose and went into Ninive according to the word of our Lord And Ninive was a great City of three days journey And Jonas began to enter into the City one days journey and he cryed and said as yet fourty days and Ninive shall be subverted And the men of Ninive believed in God and they proclaimed a Fast and were clothed with sackcloth from the greater to the lesser And the word came to the King of Ninive and he rose up out of his Throne and cast away his garment from him and was clothed with sackcloth and sate in ashes And he cried and said in Ninive from the mouth of the King and of his Princes saying Men and Beasts and Oxen and Cattel let them not tast any thing nor feed and let them not drink water And let Men and Beasts be covered with sackclothes and cry to our Lord in strength and let every man convert from his evil way and from the iniquity that is in their hands Who knoweth if God will convert and forgive and will return from the fury of his wrath and we shall not perish And God saw their works that they were converted from their evil way and our Lord had mercy on his people The Church beseeches God to give his grace to all her Members to have the same Faith and Piety as they have all the same Hope and the same Recompence in proportion to their Merits Let us Pray Let us kneel R. Lift up your selves O God who hast united several Nations in confession of thy Name give us both the will and power to do what thou commandest that thy People who are called to partake of thy Eternity may have the same faith of Spirit and Piety in their actions Through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen The ELEVENTH PROPHECY taken out of the 13th Chapter of Deuteronomy The Church exhorts the People to keep the Law of God so to avoid the evils threatned to those that break it IN those days Moses wrote the Canticle and taught it the Children of Israel And our Lord commanded Josue the son of Nun and said take courage and be strong for thou shalt bring the Children of Israel into the land which I have promised and I will be with thee Therefore after that Moses wrote the words of this law in a volume and finished it he commanded the Levites that carried the ark of the covenant of our Lord saying take this book and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of our Lord your God that it may be for a testimony against thee For I know thy contention and thy most stiff neck Whiles I yet live and go in with you you have done always contentiously against our Lord how much more when I shall be dead Gather to me all your ancients by your tribes and your doctors and I will speak these words in their hearing and will invocate against them heaven and earth For I know that after my death you will do wickedly and will decline quickly
and when thy years shall be accomplished thou wilt make thy self known when the time shall come thou wilt be manifested V. And when my soul shall be troubled thou wilt remember thy mercy even in thy wrath V. God will come from Libanus and the Holy One from the shady and dark mountain V. His glory overspread the heavens and the earth was filled with his praise Let us Pray Let us bow our knees R. Lift up your selves The PRAYER The people considering on the one side that Judas having received so many testimonies of favour from Jesus Christ after he had been admitted to his Table was yet so blinded with covetousness that he betrayed his Master and God into the hands of the Jews who put him to death upon the Cross and transported with despair fell headlong into Hell on the other side the good thief made sensible by his pains repented himself of his sins and acknowledged our dying Saviour's divinity and put his whole hopes and confidence in him deserved to receive the fruit of his Death and Resurrection they beseech God that they may not approach his Table as Judas did but may obtain the same grace with the penitent thief that so they may reap the advantage of the Death and Resurrection of our Saviour O God who hast punished the sin of Judas and rewarded the confession of the repenting thief grant unto us the effect of thy mercy to the end that as our Lord Jesus Christ hath dispensed to each of them at his Passion according to their merit so having destroyed the old man in us the grace to have part with him in his glorious resurrection Who liveth and reigneth one God world without end The LESSON taken out of the twelfth Chapter of Exodus The Church proposes to us in this Lesson the Ceremony of the Jewish Passover thereby teaching us that Jesus Christ having accomplisht the Solemnity of the ancient Pasche celebrated in memory of the deliverance of the people of Israel out of the Egyptian servitude passed to a new Passover which he is pleased the Church should solemnize in memory of the Redemption which he brought unto the world by giving his body and blood instead of the flesh and blood of the Paschal Lamb. The entire and unspotted Paschal Lamb signified that he who as a sacrifice was one day to be immolated for us should be pure and free from all spot or sin The blood of this Lamb wherewith the Gates of the Israelites were sprinkled to prevent the destroying Angel from involving them in the same slaughter with the first-born of Egypt was a sign that the blood of Christ should be shed for the remission of the sins of God's people The injunction of not breaking a bone of the Paschal Lamb signified that not a bone of Christ should be broken upon the Cross to shew the force and power of his divinity As God instituted the Pasche and commanded the Israelites to eat the Paschal Lamb in memory of the Miracles he had done for them in Egypt so his Son Jesus Christ instituted the Sacrament of his body and blood in memory of what he had done for us in his Passion The Jews in eating the Paschal Lamb were in a posture of travellers to mind them that they were upon the point of flying out of Egypt into the land of Palestine and therefore they were standing upright having their shooes on with a staff in their hands and to eat it hastily With how much more diligence and activity ought we to eat the Divine Lamb of the New Law since we are to make a longer Voyage viz. from Earth to Heaven The Jews were not to eat the Paschal Lamb but with unleavened bread to teach us that we cannot eat as we ought our Paschal Lamb whereof theirs was but onely a figure unless we purisie our hearts from all filth becoming as a new paste without leaven that is without sin The Jews did eat the Paschal Lamb with wild Lettice to signifie the grief we ought to have for our sins and the bitterness we must conceive to expiate them whereby to pass hence to heaven The number of persons which the Jews were to call together to eat the Paschal Lamb was a figure of that charity we ought to bear to each other to the end we may worthily partake in this Sacrament of the body and blood of Jesus Christ It was commanded not to eat any thing of this Lamb that was raw to teach us that we are not to eat the body of our Lord without the due preparation which God requires of us It was prohibited to be eaten boiled in water and onely to be eaten roasted to instruct us that our love of God ought to be pure in our hearts whereby to make us worthy to eat the flesh of this Divine Lamb without engaging our affections upon the transient pleasures of this life figured by water in the Holy Scripture The Jews did eat the head feet and entrails of the Paschal Lamb to tell us that we must sincerely and firmly believe not only the divinity of Christ figured by the head but his humanity figured by the feet and all the more hidden mysteries of our faith represented by the entrails The blood of this Paschal Lamb was sprinkled on the two side-posts and upon the upper door-post of the house in form of a cross to signifie that by the cross and blood of Christ we are delivered from the tyranny of the devil and servitude of sin And it was further to signifie that to receive worthily this Sacrament of the Passion of our Saviour we must not onely take it with our mouths but with our hearts designing to imitate him by the practice of good works In fine All that remained of this Paschal Lamb was cast into the fire and burnt to observe unto us that when we find our selves incapable of eating this Sacrifice entirely through weakness of spirit or doubting whether that which we see be the body of our Saviour which the Angels themselves are not able to behold we are not then to continue longer in that doubt but cast it into the fire of the holy spirit that it may be there consumed since our weakness is not able to overcome it If not then when we consider that the things that seem impossible unto us cease not to become possible by the vertue of the Holy Ghost IN those days our Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt This month shall be to you the beginning of months it shall be the first in the months of the year Speak ye to the whole assembly of the children of Israel and say to them The tenth day of this month let every man eat a lamb by their families and houses But if their number be less then may suffice to eat the lamb he shall take unto him his neighbour that joyneth to his house according to the number of souls which may suffice to the eating of
to fear but also to love him Ant. The earth trembled and was quiet when God arose unto judgment GOd is known in Jewry in Israel his name is great And his place is made in peace and his habitation in Sion There he brake the powers of bows the shield the sword and the battel Thou dost illuminate merveilously from the eternal mountains all the foolish of heart were troubled They slept their sleep and all the men of riches found nothing in their hands At thy reprehension O God of Jacob they have slumbred that mounted on horses Thou art terrible and who shall resist thee from that time thy wrath From heaven thou hast made thy judgment heard the earth trembled and was quiet When God arose unto judgment that he might save all the meek of the earth Because the cogitation of man shall confess to thee and the remains of the cogitation shall keep festival-day to thee Vow ye and render to our Lord your God all ye that round about him bring gifts To the terrible and him that taketh away the spirit of princes terrible to the kings of the earth Ant. The earth trembled and was quiet when God arose unto judgment PSALM 76. The Church here shews us That if the Faithful of the Old Law acknowledg'd their Sufferings to be occasioned by their Sins and that they deserved the Torments they suffered and that they received no Comfort but by considering the Effects of Gods Bounty in the Conduct of his People whereof there had been great and many Examples given How much more ought the Faithful of the Law of Grace to be comforted in their Afflictions by the Example and Promises of the Son of God our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ considering that what they suffer is nothing if compared to what our Redeemer suffered to take away our Sins and make us happy Then it shews us the Assurance he gives us to obtain by his Merits of God his Father either to avert the Evils of this Life or at least to mitigate them or to enable them to support them or that he wholly frees them from those Calamities and afterwards he raises them to the enjoyment of that Happiness wherein there is no fear of Ill and wherein they cannot lose the Sovereign Good Ant. In the day of my tribulation I sought God with my hands WIth my voice I have cried to our Lord with my voice to God and he attended to me In the day of my tribulation I sought God with my hands in the night before him and I was not deceived My soul refused to be comforted I was mindful of God and was delighted and was exercised and my spirit fainted Mine eyes prevented the watch I was troubled and spake not I thought upon old days and the eternal years I had in my mind And I meditated in the night with my heart and I was exercised and I swept my spirit Why will God reject for ever or will he not add to be better pleased as yet Or will he cut off his mercy for ever from generation unto generation Or will God forget to have mercy or will he in his wrath keep in his mercies And I said Now have I begun this is the change of the right hand of the Highest I have been mindful of the works of our Lord because I will be mindful from the beginning of thy merveilous works And I will meditate in all thy works and in thy inventions I will be exercised O God in the holy is thy way What God is great as our God thou art the God that dost merveilous things Thou hast made thy power known amongst peoples thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people the children of Jacob and Joseph The waters saw thee O God the waters saw thee and they were afraid and the depths were troubled A multitude of the sounding of waters the clouds give a voice For indeed arrows do pass the voice of thy thunder in a wheel Thy lightnings shined to the round world the earth was moved and troubled Thy way in the sea and thy paths in many waters and thy steps shall not be known Thou hast conducted thy people as sheep in the hand of Moyses of Aaron Ant. In the day of tribulation I sought God with my hands V. Arise O Lord. R. And judge my cause VII LESSON Out of the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians chap. 2. The Church instructs us by the Words of the Apostle St. Paul how on that day Jesus Christ being to leave this World and go unto his Father and that having celebrated the Pasch with his Disciples he instituted at this last Supper he eat with them the blessed Sacrament of his Body and Blood as a perpetual Testimony of his Passion and the fulfilling of the Figures of the Old Law and as the greatest Miracle he ever did which he also left in his Church to comfort all the Faithful afflicted by his absence and to ingrave in their Hearts a deeper Impression of that Divine Love which he testified by dying for us In this Seventh Lesson the Apostle treating of the Agapes which were Feasts instituted among the Primitive Christians in imitation of the last Feast our Saviour Jesus Christ made with his Apostles to keep Union among the Faithful he speaks against the Rich who called not the Poor to their Table but came to the Eucharist full of Wine and Meat for according to the ancient Custom every one having taken a small Repast he then came unto those Holy Mysteries But the Council of Laodice held about the Year 364 forbad to celebrate in the Churches this Ceremony of the Agapes for the Irreverences that might be committed and soon after the Apostles time they never communicated but fasting as Tertullian witnesseth ANd this I command not praising it that you come together not to better but to worse First indeed when you come together into the Church I hear that there are schisms among you and in part I believe it For there must be heresies also that they also which are approved may be made manifest among you When you come therefore together in one it is not now to eat our Lords supper For every one taketh his own supper before to eat And one certes is an hungred and another is drunk Why have you not houses to eat and drink in or contemn you the church of God and confound them that have not What shall I say to you praise I you in this I do not praise you The Church represents unto us the Ingratitude and Wickedness of the Jews who endeavoured the Death of our Saviour whilst he even fed them with his own Flesh and gave them his own Blood to drink That also those by receiving it might have eternal Life She likewise admonisheth us to take care that â—e do not crucifie Christ in our own selves as the Jews crucified him on the Cross by profaning and defiling his precious Blood â—â—d by smothering in
Mediator for the whole Church for the Pope for our Bishop for our King and for all faithful Catholicks WE therefore most merciful Father humbly beseech thee through thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord to accept and bless these ✚ Gifts these ✚ Presents these ✚ Immaculate Sacrifices which in the first we offer unto thee for thy Holy Catholick Church to which thou wilt please to grant peace and preserve and maintain in unity through the whole World with the Pope N. thy servant and our Prelate N. and our King N. with all Orthodox Believers of the Catholick Apostolick Faith Then the Priest makes a particular Commemoration of the living for whom he intends to offer his Sacrifice REmember O Lord all thy servants Men and Women Here he makes mention of those for whom he prays in particular And all such especially as are here present whose Faith and Devotion is known unto thee for whom we offer and who offer to thee for themselves or friends this Sacrifice of Praise for the Benefit of their Souls in hope of health and salvation and pay their vows unto thee the Eternal Living and True God The Priest by the vertue of the union of the Church militant with the triumphant in Jesus Christ beseeches God that he will please to supply the defect of his present Prayers imploring protection by the Merits and Suffrages of the most blessed Virgin of the Apostles Martyrs and all Saints PArticipating in the same Communion and Commemorating chiefly the ever glorious Virgin Mary Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ the blessed Apostles and Martyrs Peter and Paul Andrew James John Thomas James Philip Bartholomew Matthew Simon and Thadeus Linus Cletus Clement Xistus Cornelius Cyprian Laurence Chrysoganus John and Paul Cosmas and Damianus and of all Saints by whose Merits and Prayers be pleased to grant that in all things we may be protected by thee Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen The Priest spreads his hands over the Host and Chalice in testimony that he offers up himself to God together with this Sacrifice begging four things 1. That he will please to accept of this Offering 2. That he will grant us Peace 3. That he will deliver us from Everlasting Death 4. That he will place us amongst the blessed WE beseech thee O Lord therefore graciously to accept this oblation of our servitude as likewise of thy whole Family granting us Peace in our days and preserving us from Eternal Death place among thy Elect. Through Christ our Lord. Amen The Priest beseecheth God to receive and bless this Offering so as that he will please to accept of it and that it may become the Body and Blood of his Son our Lord Jesus Christ to expiate our sins and reconcile us to his Majesty WE beseech thee O God that thou wilt be pleased to make this Oblation blessed approved effectual reasonable and acceptable that it may be made unto us the Body and Blood of thy most beloved Son our Lord Jesus Christ The Consecration After this Prayer the Priest comes to the principal action of the Sacrifice and commemorates all that Christ did or said when he instituted this Holy Sacrament and therefore after his example he blesseth and consecrateth the Bread in the same manner WHo the day before his Passion took the Bread into his holy and venerable hands and lifting his eyes towards heaven to thee his God and omnipotent Father to thee giving thanks he blessed broke and gave to his Disciples saying Take and eat ye all of this FOR THIS IS MY BODY The Elevation of the Host. Here the Priest after he hath upon his knees adored the Body of Jesus Christ he lifts it up to be seen and adored by the Faithful and to mind them that Christ's Body was elevated upon the Cross The Consecration of the Blood of Jesus Christ. He blesseth and consecrateth the Wine as Christ consecrated it turning the Wine into his Blood whereby he established and ratified his New Testament and signed the New Alliance he contracted with us to continue for ever IN like manner after he had supt taking this excellent Chalice into his holy and venerable hands giving thee also thanks he blessed it and gave it to his Disciples saying Take and drink ye all of this FOR THIS IS THE CHALICE OF MY BLOOD OF THE NEW AND EVERLASTING TESTAMENT a Mystery of Faith WHICH SHALL BE SHED FOR YOU AND FOR MANY FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS This as often as you shall do you shall do in memory of me The Elevation of the Chalice And then adoring the Blood of our Saviour he elevates it for the same reason as he did the Body And as he offers this Holy Sacrifice in the Person of Christ in whose stead he hath celebrated this mysterious Consecration so is it done in the Name of the Church in honour of the three Mysteries of the Son of God viz. Of his Passion which we account from the Hour of his Conception till his Death of his Resurrection and Ascension The Signs of the Cross which the Priest makes over the Host after Consecration design unto us the particular manner of his immolation WHerefore O Lord we thy servants and the sanctified people also being mindful both of the blessed Passion of the same Christ thy Son our Lord and of his Resurrection as also of his glorious Ascension into Heaven we offer unto thy most excellent Majesty of thy Gifts bestowed upon us A pure Host a holy Host an immaculate Host the Holy Bread of Eternal Life and Chalice of Perpetual Salvation The Priest beseeches God to accept of this Sacrifice in memory of Abel's Sacrifice of Abraham's and Melchisedeck's which were only Figures of this WHich we beseech thee propitiously to regard and to receive this Holy Sacrifice and Immaculate Host as thou wert pleased to receive the Gifts of thy just Child Abel and the Sacrifice of our Patriarch Abraham as likewise that which thy High Priest Melchisedeck offered unto thee Supplices te rogamus Jesus Christ communicates his Substance to the blessed in Heaven without Veil or Sacraments though he communicates himself sacramentally to men on earth and as the wicked are indifferently mixt with the just upon Earth it happens that the wicked receive the Communion in distinctly with the just but it is otherwise in Heaven where the Son of God communicates himself only to the Saints And hereupon the Priest on the behalf of the Faithful asks God's grace that Jesus Christ who in the Holy Scriptures is called the Angel of the Great Council and of the New Testament will give himself unto them under the shadow of this Holy Sacrament as he gives himself to the blessed without veil on the sublime and celestial Altar in the bosom of his Divinity that is to say that as all those are worthy who receive Christ in Heaven as being Saints so he would please to furnish all these with such his blessings and celestial gifts as may enable
them to receive him worthily WE therefore Almighty God most humbly beseech thee to command these things to be represented to thy High Altar in presence of thy Divine Majesty by the hands of thy Holy Angel that all who participating of this Altar shall receive the Body and Blood of Christ may be replenished with thy Heavenly Grace and Blessing Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen The Commemoration for the Dead Memento c. As our Redeemer by his descent into Hell after his death by the Merits of his Sacrifice freed the Faithful from Limbus and Purgatory who there expected his coming and were in a condition of relief the Priest begs of God by the Merits of this Sacrifice which he offers in memory of his Son's death and descent into Hell that he will please to grant relief and rest to the Souls of the Faithful which they expect in Purgatory being there as in a dream of Peace either for that they are to come one day thence as out of a dream to enjoy a peaceable and happy life no longer subjected to the necessity of sleep or because the anguish of their pains troubles not the peace of their conscience in obedience and conformity to our Saviour's will being full of hope and confidence insomuch that we may say these transitory pains are but as a dream in comparison of those which are damned suffer in Hell for ever REmember also O Lord thy servants Men and Women N. and N. who have gone before us with the sign of Faith and now rest in Peace Here remember such particular persons as you best please WE humbly beseech O Lord to grant to these and to all those who rest in Christ a Place of Refreshment Light and Peace Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen The Priest striking his breast says Nobis quoque peccatoribus The Priest after he hath prayed to God for the Faithful both living and dead prays for himself and all other Priests that it may please his Divine Majesty by his mercy to supply their defects and grant him the grace to partake of the company of the Saints through the Merits of Jesus Christ VOuchsafe also to grant unto us sinners thy servants hoping from the multitude of thy mercies a part and society with thy Apostles and Martyrs John Stephen Matthias Barnaby Ignatius Alexander Marcellinus Peter Felicitas Perpetua Agatha Lucy Agnes Cecily Anastasia and with all Saints among whom we humbly beseech thee to admit us not esteeming our merit but mercifully granting thy pardon Through Christ our Lord. Amen Per quem haec omnia c. The Priest protests before God the Father that the Sacraments now upon the Altar with all the Benefits it contains proceeds from him through Jesus Christ by whom as by the Chief Priest he daily produces it by a kind of Creation and Consecration and life-giving Satisfaction replenished with all sorts of Blessings bestowing it upon us as a nourishment fit for our Souls that being enlivened by his Spirit we may render him all due Honour and Glory confessing that God the Father receives nothing by us but by with and in Jesus Christ By Jesus Christ as Mediator and Fountain of all good works with Jesus Christ for being but one and the same Divinity and Nature he communicates his Glory with him and the Holy Ghost in the bottom of his Divinity In Jesus Christ in the Unity of his Body and Members who make one person with him and it is in his Person incarnate that God is perfectly adored BY whom O Lord thou dost always create all these goods thou dost sanctifie quicken bless and bestow them on us by him and with him and in him O God the Father Almighty all Honour and Glory is due to thee in the Unity of the Holy Ghost Per omnia saecula c. The Priest in a loud voice concludes his protestation That he comes to praise and adore God eternally and invites the Faithful to a consent saying World without end The Faithful consenting answer Amen Let us Pray Praeceptis c. After the Priest has declared that the Glory which we give to God the celestial nourishment of this Sacrament and all other Benefits are derived unto us from God the Father through Jesus Christ we beseech him in the same words which Christ commanded us to use wherein he encourageth us to call him our Father as he was pleased to become our Brother to make us worthy to acknowledge that we can want Nothing since we have a Father so omnipotent BEing taught by our Saviour's Commands and lead by Divine Institution we are bold to say Our Father which art in Heaven where thy glory appears in more splendour and whether thou wouldst have us raise up our thoughts Hallowed be thy Name Acknowledged and adored Thy Kingdom come The Empire of thy Grace in this world and of thy Bliss in the other Thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread The precious Body and Blood of thy Son which is to day consecrated thy holy Grace and all things necessary unto us for the sustentation of this life And forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into Temptation The Faithful testifying that they pray with the Priest answer R. But deliver us from Evil. The Priest to shew that he said this Prayer in all our Names says Amen Libera c. The Priest considering there can be nothing more prejudicial to us nor which is more contrary to the communion of this Holy Sacrifice than that which disorders and troubles the Christian Peace and Union he beseeches God to deliver us from it by the Merits of Christ by the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin the Apostles and all Saints and to give us that Peace and Union which we ought to have with our Saviour and the Three Members of his Church which he signifies by dividing the Host into three parts That part which he puts on the Patine signifies the Faithful living that which he holds in his hands those in Purgatory that which he breaks off them from that the blessed in Heaven DEliver us from all Evil past present and to come and by the Intercession of the blessed and ever glorious Virgin Mary Mother of God of thy holy Apostles Peter and Paul St. Andrew and all Saints Grant propitiously unto us Peace in our days that through the assistance of thy mercy we may both be freed from sin and secured from all trouble Through the same our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son who liveth and reigneth with thee in the Unity of the Holy Ghost world without end Whereunto the Faithful joyn their Prayers and answer Amen Pax Domini c. The Priest makes thrice the sign of the Cross over the Chalice with that part of the Host which represents the Blessed to testifie that Christ rising again and ascending into Heaven hath left the Legacy of Peace
gives God thanks for the benefits he has received by this Communion in this Antiphon which is called Communion The COMMUNION taken out of the 26th Chapter of St. Matthew Wherein the Church teaches us that Jesus Christ for the love of us would take upon himself our infirmities and frailties and fulfil all things requisite for our salvation according to the will of his Father with excellent order conduct and wisdom to teach us that we ought patiently to suffer for his sake renouncing our own wills and resigning our selves entirely unto God FAther if this Cup cannot pass but that I must drink it thy will be done The POST-COMMUNION The Faithful beseech God's grace that being healed of their sins and having our Lord Jesus Christ in their hearts by virtue of this Holy Sacrifice the representation of his Passion and Death they may have no other will but his that so doing all things agreeable they may thereby work their salvation GRant O Lord by the operation of this Mystery that we may be cleansed from our sins and obtain an accomplishment of our just desires Through our Lord c. Mass being ended the Priest turns towards the Faithful and exhorting them not to make themselves unworthy of God's assistance says Our Lord be with you They answer And with thy Spirit Mass being ended Ita missa est that is You may depart is not said but Benedicamus Domino that is Let us bless our Lord as in all Masses where Gloria in excelsis is not said whereby to admonish the Faithful that these are days of pennance on which 't was the custom formerly to continue in the Church at Prayers some time after Mass Let us bless our Lord. The Faithful answer Thanks be to God The Priest bowing in the midst of the Altar says ACcept O Holy Trinity this Oblation of my servitude and grant that though this Sacrifice be presented thy Divine Majesty by my unworthy hands yet that through thy mercy it may be acceptable to thee and propitiatory for me and all other for whom I have offered it Through Christ our Lord. Then kissing the Altar to receive God's blessing he gives it to the People saying Almighty God Father Son and Holy Ghost bless you Amen Mass being ended the Priest admonishes the Faithful to keep the Union they have with Jesus Christ Our Lord be with you And with thy Spirit Then the Priest reads Saint John's Gospel which relates of the Birth of the Word and the highest Mysteries of Divinity to teach us that the end of this Holy Mystery is to make us happy for all Eternity by a visible participation of the Divinity which Christ communicates under Vells unto us in this life having taken upon him our humanity in his Incarnation and covering himself under the Species of Bread and Wine in this adorable Sacrament to accommodate himself to the weakness of our Mortality The beginning of the Holy Gospel according to St. John The People answer Glory be to thee O Lord. IN the Beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and God was the Word This was in the beginning with God All things were made by him and without him was made nothing which was made In him was life and the life was the light of men and the light shined in darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it There was a man sent from God whose name was John This man came for testimony to give testimony of the light It was the true light which lightneth every man that cometh into this world He was in the world and the world was made by him and the world knew him not He came into his own and his own received him not because as many as received him he gave them power to be made the sons of God to those that believe in his Name who not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God are born And the Word was made flesh and dwelt in us and we saw the glory as it were of the onely begotten of the Father full of grace and verity The Faithful give God thanks beseeching him not to suffer them to be so unhappy as in their persons to prevent this end of this Divine Sacrifice R. Thanks be to God Saint John's Gospel is always said at the end of Mass unless a double Feast fall upon a Sunday or a Feria which hath a proper Gospel which then is read instead of St. John's Gospel except on the Fourth Sunday in Advent in case it fall on Christmass-Eve On the third Mass upon Christmass-day the Gospel for Twelfth-day is read At private Masses on Palm-Sunday the Gospel for the Blessing of Palms is read and all the Lent no Gospel proper of the Vigils are used THE MASS FOR MUNDAY IN Holy Week The Station to St. Praxede Church To teach us by the example of St. Praxede that those who employ themselves in burying of Christ's members and in other works of Piety shall partake of the Merits of Mary Magdalene commended in this day's Gospel for her provident burial of our Saviour in anointing him with precious Persumes The INTROIT taken out of the 34th Psalm Whereby the Church represents unto us the Prayer which Jesus Christ offered up to God the Father when he suffered death for the salvation of Mankind wherein he begs that his Persecutors should not triumph over his death but that when they should think themselves victorious in that they were able to put him to death he would discover their weakness unto them and manifest his power in restoring him to that life wherein we shall have a share JUdge O Lord them that hurt me overthrow them that impugn me take Armour and Shield and rise up to help me O Lord who art the strength of my salvation PSALM XXXIV BRing forth the sword and shut up against them that persecute me Say to my soul I am thy salvation Judge O Lord c. KYRIE ELEISON c. as before pag. 36. The Faithful considering that Jesus Christ by his sufferings hath passed to life beseech God by the Merits of his Son's Passion that they may participate in his life and salvation COLLECT ALmighty God who knowest us unable to subsist through our own infirmity among so many evils grant that we may respire by the Merits of thy Son's Passion Who liveth and reigneth one God in the unity of the Holy Ghost for ever and ever Amen Against the Persecutors of the Church WE beseech thee O Lord admit being appeased the Prayers of thy Church that all Adversities and Errors being destroyed it may serve thee in secure liberty Through our Lord c. For the Pope O God the Pastor and Governour of all Faithful thou being merciful favourably respect thy Servant N. whom thou hast raised to the dignity of Chief Pastor of thy Church Grant him we beseech thee in Word and Example to profit those whom he hath charge over to the
of this day wherein the Son of God was betrayed into the hands of the Jews to expiate our sins the Priest beseeches God that he will be pleased to supply the defect of the Prayers he makes to implore his protection by the merits and suffrages of the blessed Virgin the Apostles Martyrs and of all Saints PArticipating in the same Communion and Celebrating the Solemnity of this Blessed Day wherein our Saviour Jesus Christ was betrayed for us and in the first place honouring the memory of the ever glorious Virgin Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostles and Martyrs Peter and Paul Andrew James John Thomas James Philip Bartholomew Matthew Simon and Thaddaeus Linus Cletus Clement Xistus Cornelius Cyprian Laurence Chrysogonus John and Paul Cosme and Damian and all the other Saints Through whose Prayers and Merits vouchsafe to grant us in all things the help of thy protection by the same Christ our Lord. Amen The Priest executing the Command which Christ this day gave his Disciples and their Successours to celebrate these Holy Mysteries in memory of him spreads his hands over the Host and Chalice to testifie to God that he offers and sacrifices himself joyntly therewith begging four things 1. That he will please to accept of this Offering 2. To grant us Peace 3. To deliver us from Eternal Damnation 4. To place us amongst the Elect. WE beseech thee therefore graciously to accept this Oblation of our and of thy whole families Duty which we present unto thee in solemnizing this present day whereon our Lord Jesus Christ ordained his Disciples to celebrate the Mysteries of his Body and Blood beseeching thee to grant us Peace in these our days and preserving us from Eternal Damnation to seat us among thy Elect Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen The Priest begs of God that he will accept and so bless this Oblation that it may be found good reasonable and agreeable that it may become the Body and Blood of his Son our Lord to expiate our sins and reconcile us to his Majesty WHich Oblation O God we beseech thee to make in all things blessed allowed approved reasonable and acceptable that it may be made to us the Body and Blood of thy beloved Son our Lord Jesus Christ The CONSECRATION After this Prayer the Priest comes to the principal Action of the Sacrifice and commemorates all that Christ did or said when he instituted this Holy Sacrament and following his example he blesseth and consecrateth in this manner WHo the day before his Passion for us and for the whole world that is this day took bread into his holy and venerable hands and lifting up his eyes towards heaven to the God his Father Almighty giving thee thanks he blessed brake and gave it unto his disciples saying Take eat ye all of this FOR THIS IS MY BODY All the rest till the Communion as before pag. 66 c. Thou must observe that the Kiss of Peace is not given at this time at this Day 's Mass to mind us of the horrid traiterous Kiss of Judas This Day the Priest consecrates two Hosts reserving one for the morrow when there is no consecration He reserves also some Particles for the sick in case of necessity and drinks up all the Blood and before the Ablution of his Fingers he puts the reserved Host into another Chalice which the Deacon covers with the Patten and Pall. Then he spreads the Veil over it placing it in the midst of the Altar and having given the Communion he finishes the rest of the Mast The COMMUNION taken out of the 13th Chapter of St. John The Church teacheth by the Example and Command of Jesus Christ to become humble and charitable to be pure and free from the least sins figured by the filth of our feet that so we may worthily receive the Holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ OUr Lord Jesus after he had supped with his Disciples washt their feet and said unto them Know ye what I have done unto you bring your Lord and Master I have given you an example That you should do as I have done unto you The POST-COMMUNION As the participation of the Body and Blood of Christ is a kind of figure of our Eternal Bliss in that we are fed under the Veil of the Sacrament with the same Food which the blessed without Veil or Sacrament enjoy in Heaven we beg of God the grace to receive in Heaven that wholesom effect the mystery whereof we celebrate on Earth GRant we beseech thee O Lord our God that being refresht with thee life-giving food we may receive by thy grace in Everlasting Bliss that which we celebrate in this mortal life Through Christ our Lord. Amen All the rest as before pag. 175 c. except that Ita Missa est is said instead of Benedicamus Domino because that Gloria in Excelsis was said in this Mass This day a proper place is prepared in some Chappel or Altar of the Church to expose the Chalice and reserved Host as we said before pag. 175. Then Mass being ended the Tapers are lighted and Procession begun The Subdeacon vested carries the Cross The Priest that did celebrate putting off his Vestment puts on a white Coap and standing upright before the Altar he puts Incense into the two Thuribles without a Blessing Afterwards kneeling he incenseth the blessed Sacrament thrice and taking the Chalice with the blessed Sacrament from the hands of the Deacon which he covers with the ends of the Veil that hangs upon his shoulders he goes under the Canopy with the Deacon and Subdeacon The two Acolyts incense the blessed Sacrament till they come to the place provided singing this following Hymn during the Procession SIng O my Tongue devoutly sing The glorious Bodies mystery And of that precious Blood the King Of Nations poured forth to free The World from a disastrous doom O blessed fruit of noblest womb On us bestow'd for us thy birth He from a Virgin did proceed And be conversant on earth Till he had sowed the Gospel-seed The time of his prolonged stay He clos'd in an admirable way He on the final supper night Among his brethren taking seat And well observing the ancient rite Touching the laws prescribed mete Gave to the twelve his chosen band Himself for food with 's proper hand The Incarnate Word by words he said Turned into flesh substantial bread And wine the blood of Christ was made Though sense found nothing altered This to confirm in hearts sincere There needs no more if faith be there To this great Sacrament therefore Let 's give the prostrate Worship due And may the ancient Rite no more Take place but yield it to the new Let faith in Jesus Christ supply The senses insufficiency To Father and the Son let 's bring Triumphant praises let 's aspire Their honour power and bliss to sing While benedictions fill the Quire To him that from both is sprung Let equal
and then returning up to the Altar he kneels to the blessed Sacrament after that bowing himself with his hands joyned before the Altar he says WE present our selves O Lord before thee in the spirit of humility and repentance and therefore we beseech thee that this Sacrifice may be agreeably accomplisht by us this day The Priest kisseth the Altar and kneels down then turning to the People he desires them to joyn in Prayers with him to God that he will please to accept this Offering of Wine and Water in memory of the Bloud and Water which ran out of our Saviours side And this Offering is a kind of Sacrifice in that it is joyned with the Consecrated Hoast which represents the bloudy Sacrifice of Jesus Christ PRay Brethren that this my Sacrifice which is also yours may be acceptable to God the Father Almighty And to observe unto us that this Oblation is only a representation of the bloudy Sacrifice of Jesus Christ and that no unbloudy Sacrifice is celebrated this day Suscipiat Dominus is not answered And thereupon also there is no Consecration this day because the memory of Christs Passion is only celebrated as it actually had past Nevertheless that we may not be deprived of participating the fruit of his Passion being incorporated anew with him the Body of this our Divine Saviour is reserved the day before but not the Bloud for fear of Accidents Let us Pray PRAECEPTIS c. The faithful beg of God that they may be made worthy to reap the benefit of the Passion of his Son Jesus Christ in receiving his Body in the same Prayer which Christ himself taught us giving them confidence to call him our Father as he made himself our Brother to teach us that we cannot fail of any thing having an Omnipotent Father BEing taught by our Saviour's Commands and led by Divine Institution we are bold to say Our Father which art in Heaven where you shine in greater glory and whereunto thou art pleased that we should raise our thoughts Hallowed be thy Name Acknowledged and Adored Thy Kingdom come The Empire of thy Grace in this World and of the next Thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread The precious Body and Blood of thy Son which is daily consecrated thy Grace and all things necessary for us in the course of this life And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors And lead us not into temptation The People to testifie their concurrence with the Priest in this Prayer answer But deliver us from evil From sin from the snares of this world the flesh and the devil And to shew that this Prayer is pronounc'd in the name of all it is answered Amen LIBERA c. The Priest considering that there is no greater evil nor more contrary to the Holy Communion than that which may trouble and destroy the Peace and Union of Christians beseeches God to deliver us by the Merits of Jesus Christ by the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin of the Apostles and all the Saints and to grant us that Peace and Union which we ought to have with our Saviour and with the other Members of his Church which he signifies by breaking the Hoast and dividing it into three parts That part which he puts upon the Patten signifies the faithful in this life that which he retains in his Hand the faithful that are in Purgatory and that which he breaks the blessed DEliver us O Lord we beseech thee from all evils past present and to come and grant us peace in these our Duties by the intercession of the ever-glorious Virgin Mary Mother of God of thy Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul of St. Andrew and all the Saints that being assisted by thy gracious mercy we may be free from all sin and secure from all dangers Through the same our Lord Jesus Christ who liveth and reigneth God with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost for ever and ever The faithful concurring with the Priest answer Amen No Incense is used at this Elevation to signifie that on this day the Jews refused all honour due to God nor are the Bells rung to mind us of the Disciples silence and astonishment After the Deacon hath uncovered the Chalice and the Priest divided the Hoast into three parts over the Chalice he puts the least particle into the Chalice which represents the Estate of the blessed and the other two parts upon the Patten without saying any thing or making the sign of the Cross omitting Pax Domini c. Haec commixtio c. Agnus Dei c. Domine Jesu Christe qui dixisti c. Domine Jesu Christe Pili Dei vivi c. to express unto us that the wholesom effect of Christs Passion and the reconciliation of Men with God was not compleated till after his Resurrection Nor is the Pax given about for the same reason as also to shew our aversion to Judas his traiterous kiss The Priest says the Prayer following to beg of God a disposition requisite for the worthy receiving of the Eucharist GRant O Lord Jesus Christ that this participation of thy body which now though unworthy I intend to receive may not turn to my judgment and condemnation but through thy mercy may be a protection and and a wholsom medicine to my soul and body Who livest and reignest with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost world without end Amen And having kneeled to adore the Sacrament taking the Hoast between his hands considering he is to receive his God he puts all his confidence in his mercy saying I Will take the Celestial Bread and will call upon the Name of our Lord. And calling to mind how acceptable the Centurion's humility was to the Son of God when he would have honoured him with a visit in imitation of him he protests himself unworthy so great a favour and knocking his breast useth the same words LOrd I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof only say the word and my soul shall be healed Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof only say the word and my soul shall be healed Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof only say the word and my soul shall be healed When he receives the Body of our Lord he makes the sign of the Cross with the Hoast calling to his mind that 't is that Body which Christ exposed to death to save us THe Body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve my Soul to Life Everlasting Amen The Priest having taken the Body of Christ the Deacon uncovering the Chalice drinks that piece of the Hoast put into the Chalice together with the Wine therein without saying any thing or making the sign of the Cross to signifie the Wine is not consecrated The Sub-deacon pours wine and water into the Chalice to wash his singers that so the least piece of the
Abraham returned to his young men and they went to Bersabee together and he dwelt there The Church considering that all descended from Abraham according to the Flesh are not true Israelites but only those who in Holy Scriptures are called his Seed that is those who imitate his Faith begs Gods Grace for all the Gentils to imitate the Faith of this great Patriarch so as to reap the effect of the Promises made to him and his Posterity Let us Pray Let us bow our knees R. Lift up your selves O God the sovereign Father of the Faithful who by the grace of adoption through the whole world multipliest the children of thy promise and by this Paschal Sacrament viz. by the sacrifice of thy Son whereof the Paschal Lamb and the sacrifice of Isaac was a figure makest thy servant Abraham in his stead the Father of all Nations according to thy promise grant that thy people may worthily enter into the grace of their vocation Through our Lord Jesus Christ c. The FOURTH PROPHECY out of the 14th Chapter of Exodus The Church tells the excellency of Baptism and its effects by the wonderful things done for the Israelites the Pillar of Fire which shined before them in the Night and the Cloud which sheltered them from the heat of the Sun in the Day represented the Holy Ghost and the graces which he poureth out upon us The passage through the Red Sea under Moses his Conduct was a figure of Baptism which we receive by the Priest in the Sacramental Water sanctified by Christ's Bloud Pharao represented the Devil and the Egyptians our sins The sudden return of the Waters drowning the Egyptians signifie that our sins are ingulfed in the Waters of Baptism and that coming out of the Font we ought to look upon them as the Children of Israel after they had passed the Red Sea did upon the Egyptians dead on all sides upon the Sands and as they sate upon their Chariots sunk to the Ground IN those days when the morning-watch was come behold our Lord looking upon the Egyptians camp through the pillar of the fire and the cloud slew their army and overthrew the wheels of their chariots and they were born in the depth The Egyptians therefore said Let us fly from Israel for the Lord fighteth for them against us And our Lord said to Moses Stretch forth thy hand upon the sea that the waters may return to the Egyptians upon their chariots and horsemen And when Moses had stretched forth his hand against the sea it returned in the first break of day to the former place and the Egyptians flying away the waters came upon them and our Lord enwrapt them in the midst of the waves And the waters returned and overwhelmed the chariots and the horsemen of all Pharo's army who following were entred into the sea neither did there so much as one of them remain But the children of Israel marched through the midst of the dry sea and the waters were unto them as instead of a wall on the right hand and on the left And our Lord delivered Israel in that day out of the hand of the Egyptians And they saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea-shore and the mighty hand that our Lord had exercised against them And the people feared our Lord and they believed our Lord and Moses his servant Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song to our Lord and said The TRACT taken out of the Eighteenth Chapter of Exodus The Church representing to the Catechumens the Obligation they have being by Baptism freed from the Tyranny of the Devil and Slavery of Sin to sing Canticles of Praise and Thanksgiving to our Lord with much more joy than the Israelites did when they were led out of the Egyptian Servitude and from the Persecution of their Enemies LEt us sing unto the Lord for he triumphed gloriously The horse and his rider hath he cast into the sea He is made a helper and protector to me for salvation V. He is my God and I will honour him my fathers God and I will exalt him V. The Lord is a destroyer of war the Lord is his Name Let us Pray The Church considering that the People of Israel's delivery from the Egyptians Bondage and the promises which God made them was a figure of those Graces which they shall receive who imitating the Faith of Abraham shall become his Children or true Israelites by the Regeneration of Baptism beseeches God that all People may be Regenerated and have the grace of Faith that so they may receive the effects of his Promises Let us bow our knees R. Lift up your selves O God who makest us see even in our days the miracles wrought by thee in past ages that what thou didst in the delivery of one people from the power of Egypt thou wroughtest for the salvation of the Gentiles through the water of regeneration grant that all the nations of this world may become true children of Abraham and enter into the dignity of being children of Israel Through our Lord Jesus Christ c. The FIFTH PROPHECY taken out of the 54th and 55th Chapter of Isay Wherein the Church presents to us the Promise God made to the Gentiles through his gracious Mercy of the Health-giving Waters of his Word and grace of obtaining for them the heavenly Inheritance and eternal Felicity And first it tells us that if the Eternal Word did not pour forth these Divine Waters into our Souls they would not be able to produce the least Fruit of Justice but would be altogether barren Secondly it teaches us that the Word which issues from Gods mouth when it dilates it self in humane hearts makes no unprofitable return to him that sent it but that it breeds and fructifies abundantly in their hearts that receive it THis is the inheritance of the servants of our Lord and their justice with me saith our Lord. All ye that thirst come to the waters and you that have no silver make hast buy and eat come buy without silver and without any exchange wine and milk Why bestow your silver not for bread and your labour not for satiety Hearing hear ye me and eat that which is good and your soul shall be delighted in fatness Incline your ear and come to me hear and your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting covenant with you the faithful mercies of David Behold I have given him for a witness unto the people for a prince and master to the Gentiles Behold thou shalt call the nation which thou knowest not and the nations that knew not thee shall return to thee because of the Lord thy God and the holy one of Israel because he hath glorified thee Seek ye the Lord whiles he may be found invocate him whiles he is near Let the impious forsake his way and the unjust man his cognitations and return to our Lord and he will have mercy on him And to our God because
the new Life which the Israelites that is those who shall believe in the Messias are to receive by a Spiritual Regeneration expecting a glorious Resurrection of the Dead IN those days the hand of the Lord was made upon me and brought me forth in the spirit of our Lord and left me in the mids of a field that was full of bones And he led me about through them on every side and there were very many upon the face of the field and exceeding dry And he said to me Son of man thinkest thou these bones shall live And I said Lord God thou knowest And he said to me Prophesie of these bones and thou shalt say to them Dry bones hear ye the word of our Lord. Thus saith our Lord God to these bones Behold I will put spirit into you and you shall live And I will give sinews unto you and will make flesh to grow up over you and will stretch a skin on you And I will give you spirit and you shall live And you shall know that I am the Lord. And I prophesied as he had commanded me And there was made a sound when I prophesied and behold a commotion and bones came to bones every one to his juncture And I saw and behold upon them sinews and flesh was grown up and a skin was stretched out in them above and they had no spirit And he said to me Prophesie son of man and thou shalt say to the spirit Thus saith our Lord God Come spirit from the four winds and blow upon these slain and let them be revived And I prophesied as he had commanded me and the spirit entred into them and they lived and they stood upon their feet an army passing great And he said to me Son of man all these bones are the house of Israel They say our bones are withered our hope is perished and we are cut off Therefore prophesie and thou shalt say to them Thus saith our Lord God Behold I will open your graves and bring you out of your Sepulchers O my people and will bring you into the land of Israel And you shall know that I am the Lord when I shall have opened your Sepulchers and shall have brought you out of your graves O my people And shall have given my spirit in you and you shall live And I shall make you rest upon your ground saith our Lord God Let us pray The Church presenting unto us how Jesus Christ figured by the Paschal Lamb in the Old Testament hath taught us by his Life and Passion what we are to do during this present Life and by his Resurrection what Blessings we are to hope for in the next begs of God to make us worthy of the benefits he bestows upon us in this Life and of the Blessings we hope for in the next Let us bow our knees R. Lift up your selves O God who by Holy Scriptures Old and New instructest us to celebrate the Paschal Mysteries grant us to know the grandeur of thy mercy that receiving the gifts in this life we may be raised to a firm hope of thy future blessings Through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen The EIGHTH PROPHECY taken out of the 4th Chapter of Isay Which in one part foretells the Ruin of Jerusalem and the extream desolation which was to befal the Jews and in the other he describes the establishment of our Saviours Reign and the abundant graces he would pour forth on those who should believe in him AND seven women shall take hold of one man in that day saying we will eat our own bread and be covered with our garments onely let thy Name be called upon us take away our reproach In that day the bud of our Lord shall be in magnificence and glory and the fruit of the Earth high and exultation to them that shall be saved of Israel And it shall be every one that shall be left in Sion and shall remain in Jerusalem shall be called Holy every one that is written in life in Jerusalem If our Lord shall cleanse the filth of the Daughters of Sion and shall wash the bloud of Jerusalem out of the midst thereof in the spirit of judgment and the spirit of heat And our Lord shall create upon every place of mount Sion and where he is invocated a cloud by the day and smoak and the brightness of flaming fire by night for upon all glory protection And there shall be a Tabernacle for a place of shadow in the day from the heat and for security and covert from the whirlwind and from rain The TRACT out of the 5th Chapter of Isay The Prophet Isay shews us that the Son of God our Lord Jesus Christ is the Head of his Church which he compares to a Vine wherein God hath established the Jews to cultivate it who not discharging their Duty are driven thence and God put in their stead faithful Servants who make the true House of Israel The Fence wherewith the Prophet says God encompassed his Vineyard that is his Church signifies the grace wherewith he replenisheth protects and guards it The Tower is a sign that he fortifies and defends it from the force of the Devils and their Ministers who continually endeavour to overcome and destroy it The Press there prepared represents Christs Cross whence the Fruit of our Salvation flows as the most precious spiritual Must MY well-beloved hath a Vineyard in a very fruitful Hill V. And he fenced it and planted it with the choicest Vine and built a Tower in the midst of it V. And made a Wine-press in it for the Vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the House of Israel The Church beseeches God that the Catechumens withdrawing themselves from Sin and coming into his Fold as a Branch transplanted from Egypt cleared from Thorns and Thistles may produce by his grace the Fruits he requires of them Let us pray Let us bend our knees R. Lift up your selves O God who by the mouth of thy Holy Prophets hast declared that for the benefit of all the Children of thy Church thou sowest good Seed through the whole extent of thy Empire and improvest thy chosen Plants grant of thy bounty that having rooted up all the Briars and Thistles from among thy People whom thou art pleased shall be called Vines they may bring forth good Fruit in abundance through our Jesus Christ The NINTH PROPHECY taken out of the 12th Chapter of Exodus In this Lesson the Church proposes unto us the Ceremony of the Jewish Passover explicated before pag. 197. to instruct us that Jesus Christ having fulfilled the Solemnity of the old Pasch celebrated in memory of the delivery of the People of Israel from the Egyptian Bondage came to this new Pasch which he is pleased that his Church should solemnize in memory of the Redemption he brought to the World giving his Body and Bloud in lieu of the Flesh and Bloud of the Paschal Lamb. And for the better observance of
dead or shall physicians raise to life and they confess to thee Shall any in the sepulcher dâ—â—â—e thy mercy and thy truth in perdition Shall thy merveilous works be known in darkness and thy justice in the land of oblivion And I O Lord have cried to thee and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee Why dost thou O Lord reject my prayer turnest away thy face from me I am poor and in labors from my youth and being exalted humbled and troubled Thy wraths have passed upon me and thy terrors have troubled me They have compassed me as water all the day they compassed me together Thou hast made friend and neighbor far from me and my familiar because of misery Ant. I am become as a man without help free among the dead V. His place is made in peace R. And his habitation in Sion LESSON VII Taken out of the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews Chap. 9. The Church teacheth us by those words of the Apostle That the Mediator of the Old Testament who was the High-priest was not able to cleanse Mens Souls from their Sins nor to open Heaven for them either by the quality of his Priesthood of the Old Law or by the nature of the Sacrifice and Testament The High-Priest of 〈◊〉 was a Sinner like other Men he entred only into the maâ—â—â—â— Sanctuary and into a Tabernacle built by the Hands of Men he only offered Calves and other lawful Victims unto God and they could only receive from him Temporal Blessings It was therefore needful to have a Mediator of the New Testament and that was JESUS CHRIST who being both God and Man could not sin and was the Source and Fountain of all Sanctity Who by Sacrificing himself purified us by his one Blood with an Interior and Spiritual Purity delivering us from our Sins to make us in a condition to render God a truly faithful Service and entring into the true Sanctuary that is into Heaven and into the Bosom of God his Father he profered us to him and made us by his Will and Testament Partakers and Heirs of his Heavenly Inheritance CHrist assisting an high priest of the good things to come by a more ample and more perfect tabernacle not made with hand that is not of this creation neither by the blood of goats or of calves but by his own blood entred in once into the holies eternal redemption being found For if the blood of goats and of oxen and the ashes of an heifer being sprinkled sanctifieth the polluted to the cleansing of the flesh How much more hath the blood of Christ who by the Holy Ghost offered himself unspotted unto God cleansed our conscience from dead works to serve the living God RESP. The Church minds to give thanks unto JESUS CHRIST for vouchsafing us his Mercy and Sacrificing himself on the Cross for our Salvation We must also abhor the Wickedness of the Jews who to satisfie their Malice put to Death this Divine Saviour R. The kings of the earth have risen up and the princes are assembled together against the Lord and against his Christ V. Why have the nations raged and the people meditated vain things Against the Lord and against his Christ LESSON VIII The Apostle instructs us That the Death which our Mediator was willing to suffer was to repair those Prevarications committed during the Old Testament and to render us capable of the effects of the Divine Promises of the New Testament and this founded on the natuere of the Testament For in the first place JESUS CHRIST being willing to give unto Man a New Testament it was also but requisit that it should be firm and unalterable the which to render it 't was necessary he should die for the Wills and Testaments of Men take no effect till after their Death for whilst they live they may either change or absolutely cancel them Secondly The New Testament was to correspond with the first neither was the Fire given without the effusion of Blood as appears in Exod. chap. 24. ANd therefore he is the mediator of the new testament that death being a mean unto the redemption of these prevarications which were under the former testament they that are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance For where there is a testament the death of the testator must of necessity come between for a testament is confirmed in the dead otherwise it is yet of no value whilst the testator liveth Whereupon neither was the first certes dedicated without blood RESP. The Faithful consider that the Jews put this Divine Testator to a most Ignominious Death who came to give them by his last Will and Testament a Heavenly Inheritance if by their Impiety and Ingratitude they had not made themselves unworthy it They likewise consider that as the Jews had no power to put our Saviour to Death but because he would himself so in voluntarily dying he triumphed over Death R. I am accounted with them that descend into the lake I am become as a man without help free among the dead V. They have put me in the lower lake in the dark places and in the shadow of death I am become as c. LESSON IX In this Lesson the Apostle represents unto us That in the Old Testament the Purifications were made by the shedding of Blood without which the Remission of Sins had not been given since it is that which is the confirmation of all Alliance FOr all the commandment of the law being read of Moyses to all the people he taking the blood of calves and goats with water and scarlet-wooll and hyssop sprinkled the very book also it self and all the people saying This is the blood of the testament which God hath commanded unto you The tabernacle also and all the vessel of the ministery he in like manner sprinkled with blood And all things almost according to the law are cleansed with blood and without shedding of blood there is not remission RESP. In the Old Law in the Seventeenth Chapter of Leviticus God Commanded that the Blood of Victims should be covered to shew unto us that it was an effect of his Bounty that he vouchsafed to receive the lives of Innocent Beasts instead of that of Sinners But on the contrary the Jews instead of covering the Blood of JESUS CHRIST that is instead of acknowledging the excess of his Bounty wherewith God would that his Son who was the God of Man should die for them who deserved Death and that he should die on the Cross even for their Salvation who nailed him thereon But they instead of repenting themselves or being confounded for having put to Death their Saviour they moreover persecuted him even in his Sepulcher And this it is which the Faithful consider in the following Versicles R. Our Lord being buried his monument was sealed rolling a stone against the mouth of the monument setting soldiers who might guard it V. The chief priests came unto Pilate
our Soul the Spirit of his Grace This â—â—orable Saviour is so benign as to feed us with his own Flesh and more for the love of us he offered himself as a Victim Then that Excuse have we if though we receive such Nourishment â—e yet persist in our wicked ways or if in eating the Lamb we leave not being Wolves if in being fed with his Flesh which was as sweet as Lamb we desist not from devouring others as Lions For this Mystery must not only draw us from all Injustice and Sin but also take away all Animosities though never so small for this is a Mystery of Peace and Charity R. I was like an innocent Lamb I was led to be immolated and I did not know it My enemies made counsel against me saying Come let us put wood on his bread and let us root him out from the land of the living V. All my enemies thought evil against me they have spoken ill against me saying Come ye c. VIII LESSON The Apostle treats of the Institution of the Eucharist and shews us that it was instituted to the end that by eating that Bread and drinking that Blood we might always remember him who died and rose again for us FOr I received of our Lord that which also I have delivered unto you That our Lord Jesus in the night that he was betrayed took bread and giving thanks bâ—rake and said Take ye and eat THIS IS MY BODY which shall be delivered for you This do ye for the commemoration of me In like manner also the chalice after he had supped saying THIS CHALICE IS THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MY BLOOD This do ye as often as you shall drink for the commemoration of me For as often as you shall eat this bread and drink the chalice you shall shew the death of our Lord until he come The Church represents unto us how that if we cannot consider Judas his Treason without having great indignation against him who after he had been admitted to the spiritual Table of his Divine Majesty and to that magnificent and terrible Feast and after he had received so many Testimonies of his Friendship yet he delivered and sold his Master by a Kiss Wherefore we must always be careful of our Actions and watch with great solicitude lest we make our selves guilty of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ by betraying him and profaning and violating that Divine Agreement which in our Baptism we contracted with him which we shall do if we receive him with a Mouth full of Impurity and Filth and with a depraved and impure Soul after we have received so great and many Benefits T was Avarice that destroyed Judas and that 's the Precipice from which we must defend our selves It behoveth him who is desirous to Communicate in memory of Jesus Christ who died and rose again for us that he be not only clean from all Impurity of Body and Mind but also that he evidently shews that what he do's is in commemoration of him that died and rose again for us by declaring that he is dead to Sin to the World and to himself and that he only lives for God in our Lord Jesus Christ R. Could you not watch one hour with me who were so resolved to die for me But Judas sleeps not behold how he is coming to betray me into the hands of the Jews V. Why do ye sleep Arise and pray that ye enter not into temptation But Judas sleeps not c. IX LESSON The Apostle shews us after what manner we ought to prepare our selves to receive the Communion and with what diligence â—e ought to examine our Conscience We ought to prepare our selves for the Participation of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ through a true Repentance proportionable to our Sins In this Penance each one must be severe and rigid to himself that having condemned himself he may not be condemn'd by God Each one must seat himself in the Tribunal of his own Conscience there to act against himself This Judgment being so established in the Heart of Man his Thoughts must be imagin'd to be Accusers his Conscience tho Witness and his Fear the Executioner After which Tears must appear as a kind of Blood trickling from the Soul that confesses her self culpable Also the Image of the last dreadful Day of Judgment must be represented before the Eyes to the end that with dread and Horror we may apprehend the Danger of being cast into eternal Death We must likewise observe according to the Admonition St. Augustin gives us in the 118. Epistle to Januarius That those words of the Apostle For the other Rules I shall establish them when I shall be amongst you by which are understood the Order of the Office of the Blessed Sacrament and the Sacrifice of the Altar such as is now celebrated in the Universal Church THerefore whosoever shall eat this bread or drink the chalice of our Lord unworthily he shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of our Lord. But let a man prove himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that chalice For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh judgment to himself not discerning the body of our Lord. Therefore are there among you many weak and feeble and many sleep But if we did judge our selves we should not be judged But whiles we are judged of our Lord we are chastised that with this world we be not damned Therefore my brethren when you come together to eat expect one another If any man be an hungred let him eat at home that you come not together unto judgment And the rest I will dispose when I come The Church having entertained us with that Divine Banquet which Jesus Christ made on the Vigil of his Passion to his Disciples of his own Body and Blood and having shewed us that this sacred Banquet in which we assist is of the same nature as that wherein his Apostles assisted and that there is nothing less in This than there was in That because it was truly Christ himself who made This as well as it was he who made the other and having instructed us in the due Preparation to receive him worthily She as soon minds us of the Conspiracy of the Jews against Jesus Christ thereby to teach us That there is nothing makes us more firm and vigorous that animates us that encourages and fortifies us more against the Violence of Temptations and Persecutions than the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and that nothing renders us so capable of drinking of the Cup of Sorrow than to drink of the Chalice of our Saviour R. The Elders of the People consulted together how they might by some wile apprehend Jesus and kill him with swords and clubs they came out as it were to a thief V. The Priests and Pharisees consulted together how they might by some wile apprehend Jesus R. The Elders of the People